CDPR dev admits that Cyberpunk 2077 could have been better

Date:
Tue, 24 Jan 2023 15:53:46 +0000

Description:
In a Twitch stream, Cyberpunk 2077s Quest Director fielded player questions about the game and offered some interesting answers.

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In a recent stream, Cyberpunk 2077s quest director Pawe Sasko took the time
to answer questions from viewers about the highs and lows of CD Projekt Reds dystopian sci-fi RPG.

In what might otherwise have been a run-of-the-mill stream of Cyberpunk 2077
, Sasko used the platform to answer some fan questions about the titles story composition and had a lot to say about its narrative design (via PCGamesN ).

He acknowledged that the game has an insane amount of linearity and that the different branches of player choice were not satisfactory. He went on to highlight how developers tend to see nonlinearities in a much broader sense than players do, which meant that for the players [Cyberpunk 2077s story choices] were not enough.

That said, Sasko did describe some of the player criticism as slightly overblown. People claim theres nothing, [but], if you use such a strict definition [of what branching storylines are], then you get to the fact that literally only the biggest branches matter and nothing else, Sasko said. Im not saying that we did a wonderful job. I think its fine. I think it could have been better.

You can find the full stream on Sasko's Twitch channel . His discussion of players questions and Cyberpunk 2077s narrative design can be found at the 1:17:00 mark if you want to hear his comments for yourself. Story time (Image credit: CD Prokekt Red)

Sasko also drew comparisons between Cyberpunk 2077 and CD Projekt Reds previous project: The Witcher 3. The Witcher 3 set something of a bar for story-driven open-world RPGs with branching narratives, and Sasko spoke
highly of it: its not possible to have identical playthroughs [of The Witcher 3] at all.

Players expected more [from Cyberpunk], because of how The Witcher 3 is built expectations were higher, Sasko explained. In The Witcher 3, you had gigantic branches [including] the Bloody Baron vampires or [the] fairy tale world [in Blood and Wine]. This meant that, when it came to Cyberpunk 2077,
expectations were [high] regarding big [narrative] branches, meaning that the incredibly linear Cyberpunk was never going to meet player demand.

Sakso went on to discuss one particular branching story path in Cyberpunk
2077 as a point of comparison, namely the (potential) death of Arasaka Corporation agent Goro Takemura. Takemura can die or not [it took] so much to make [both branches] work from a narrative design perspective. However, Sakso conceded that once people learn of the fact that you can save this fan-favorite character by completing a hidden secondary objective in a main story quest, they run to save him, meaning that something that was designed
to be nonlinear [stops being] a choice.

In a recent playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 over the Christmas break, I discovered this previously unknown story path for myself. Once I learned that Takemura could be rescued from his predicament, I loaded a previous save and got the outcome I desired. CD Projekt Red had done such a good job of presenting Takemura as a sympathetic character that letting him die no longer seemed like a palatable option. Sakso was right: it wasnt really a choice.

The revelations Sakso offered in his Twitch stream remind us that it isnt enough to fill a game with arbitrary player choices; the choices have to mean something each offering a unique and worthwhile story beat in and of themselves. Looking for a great story-driven game in the meantime? Here's our link of the best RPGs on PC and console.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/cdpr-dev-admits-that-cyberpunk-2077-could-have- been-better


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